Jackson Community College will save an estimated $100,000 in administrator health insurance costs next fiscal year under action taken Monday by trustees in response to a new state law.

The president of the JCC Faculty Association criticized officials for not discussing the matter with the union before the vote. Monday’s action also could affect faculty when their contract expires in 2013. It will be effective in 2012 for administrators, who have one-year deals.

Gov. Rick Snyder recently signed legislation that limits the amount of money public employers can spend on health benefits, requiring employees to pay more.

Trustees voted 7-0 to pick one of two options under the new law — a hard cap that limits JCC from paying no more than $5,500 annually for health insurance for a single employee; $11,000 for an employee and spouse; and $15,000 for family coverage.

The other option under the new law would have been to require employees to pay 20 percent of costs and have the college pay 80 percent.

Bill Hendry, JCC’s executive director for human resources, said the hard cap provides the college with more potential savings. “It provides an incentive for both the college and the employees to limit their costs,” he said.

Thomas Vainner, vice president for finance and operations, said the hard cap will be more expensive to employees at first, but that cost-control efforts could ultimately reduce employee expenses to about the same as under the 80-20 split.

Alana Tuckey, president of the JCC Faculty Association, said after Monday’s meeting she was “disappointed” by the decision. “I think Trustee (Phil) Hoffman talked about how it’s a big deal,” Tuckey said. “And they should have come to talk to us.”

Hoffman said during the meeting that implementing the legislation will result in “a big change.”

For faculty, annual employee costs for family coverage under the current $20,282 plan would increase from about $1,500 to about $5,000.